If you don’t have MS, or are newly diagnosed, you may be thinking – what in the world is a disease modifying drug? They’re also known as DMT’s, or disease modifying therapies.
In the past, these drugs were used only for RRMS to help modify disease activity. Specifically, DMD’s have been found to –
Reduce frequency and severity of relapses.
Reduce the development of new lesions.
Slow the accumulation of disability.
Let me be clear here – there is no cure for MS, and I’m not here to try and sell you one. These drugs all have proven effectiveness – and proven side effects, some worse than others.
Choosing a DMD is a very personal decision that should be between you and your medical professional. Most agree that early intervention with DMD’s can positively affect disease progression, so usually they will recommend treatment. However, this decision should be as personal and unique as your own MS.
As I mentioned in my last post about Rebif, there have been a ton of advances in research lately. In the last few years we’ve seen the introduction of the first drug approved for PPMS, and even kids with MS over the age of ten.
Generally speaking, DMD’s are broken down into three different categories:
Inject-able
Oral
Intravenous
These three categories contain a dozen or so different medications, ranging from one end of the severity spectrum to the other.
That being said, I’ll jump right into the different drugs and their descriptions!
Injectable Drugs
Avonex, Plegridy, + Rebif – Interferon Beta-1a or Betaseron, Interferon Beta-1b
This is the only category of DMD’s I personally have any experience with. These bad boys have been approved for the longest amount of time for RRMS. Like most DMD’s the biggest side effect here tends to be flu like symptoms. With injectables, you’ll also often have injection site reactions. You can read about my experiences with these DMD’s here, here, and here.
One of the perks about injections is that you do get to do them in the privacy of your own home!
Oral Drugs
These types of drugs were approved relatively recently for the treatment of certain forms of relapsing MS. There are a few different ones, including Aubagio, Gilenya, Mavenclad, Mayzent, and Tecfidera.
Along with the flu like symptoms common with inject-ables, they also come with the risk of some flushing, as well as headaches and stomach problems. Like injections, these meds are taken at home.
Intravenous
These drugs include Ocrevus, Tysabri, and Lemtrada. Going through the list of side effects was a task for this list; it’s quite a bit longer than the others. It includes the usual stomach issues, flu like symptoms, and flushing, but can also carry the risk of PML, hair loss, and menstrual changes in women.
This type of medication is only available at an infusion center, or through a home-based laboratory specialist, due to the need for a healthcare provider to start the infusion.
If you have a big interest in learning more about these medications and their side effects, this is a link to the brochure that supplied me with the majority of my information when I was newly diagnosed. It’s one of the reasons I chose to start on interferon’s to begin with.
As I mentioned before, choosing a DMD to go on (or even whether or not to go on one in the first place) is a serious, personal matter between you and your doctor. Unfortunately, I don’t think any doctor in the world has enough time to go over every single med and side effect with every single patient, so hopefully this list pointed you in the direction you needed!
If you have any experiences or advice you’d like to share about your DMD journey, leave them below!
Until next time,
